Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Tidal Wave of Theology

The recent catastrophe of earthquake and tsunami activity cannot help but dominate one's thoughts. Any event that has killed so many that every report of the death toll is obsolete by the time it is reported is surely worthy of one's attention.

With that in mind, I want to point all to the following link: http://www.mcc.org/respond/rapid_respond/asiaearthquake/index.html

I want to encourage people to donate to the disaster relief efforts of the Mennonite Central Committee.

I also want to take a moment to encourage people, particularly Christians, to allow the gravity and magnitude of the loss and suffering to really reach their hearts. It is too easy to shrug off the event as happening "over there" for some. For Christians there is the additional temptation to fluff it off as being part of "God's plan."

Now, in no way do I wish to deny that God has a plan in all of this. Yet this affirmation is not, and ought not be, a hedge against allowing the poignancy of the tragedy to penetrate our hearts. If anything, the fact that we believe in God as we do should cause us to feel more, not less, and react faster and with more passion, not less.

I have no doubt that God has a plan that incorporates, in some mysterious way, the events that are currently taking place in Asia. I also have no doubt that God feels deeply for everyone affected by those events. God is not indifferent to suffering. Neither should we be, especially not while invoking His Name and Will.

1 comment:

In His Steps said...

I heard a rabbi on Larry King put things into perpective. Each day 29,000 children die world wide of preventable disease and starvation. That is over 10 million children each year!! Where are we, the developed world and for that matter, born again Christians for these children??? Is there more media coverage because European and North American tourists were among the perished??? Sad to think but probably very true.